TY - JOUR
T1 - Investigation into the effect of lateral and longitudinal loads on railroad spike stress magnitude and location using finite element analysis
AU - Dersch, Marcus
AU - Roadcap, Tom
AU - Edwards, J. Riley
AU - Qian, Yu
AU - Kim, Jae Yoon
AU - Trizotto, Matheus
N1 - This research effort is funded by the Federal Railroad Administration (FRA), part of the United States Department of Transportation (US DOT). This work was also supported by the National University Rail Center, a U.S. Department of Transportation Office of the Assistant Secretary for Research and Technology Tier 1 University Transportation Center. The material in this paper represents the position of the authors and not necessarily that of sponsors. The authors also would like to thank Dr. Carmen Sandhaas for supplying literature as well as the base UMAT code used for this paper as well as Matheus Trizotto and Yash Khaitan for their help in collecting and preparing data for this paper. Finally, the authors acknowledge the following project industry partners for supplying insight, recommendations, and materials to this study: Norfolk Southern Corporation; Union Pacific Railroad; BNSF Railway; and Pandrol USA. J. Riley Edwards has been supported in part by the grants to the UIUC Rail Transportation and Engineering Center (RailTEC) from CN and Hanson Professional Services. The authors confirm contribution to the paper as follows: study conception and design: Marcus Dersch, Yu Qian, and J. Riley Edwards; data collection: Marcus Dersch, Tom Roadcap, and Matheus Trizotto; analysis and interpretation of results: Marcus Dersch, Yu Qian, Jae-Yoon Kim; draft manuscript preparation: Marcus S. Dersch, Tom Roadcap, Yu Qian, Jae-Yoon Kim, & J. Riley Edwards. All authors reviewed the results and approved the final version of the manuscript.
This research effort is funded by the Federal Railroad Administration (FRA), part of the United States Department of Transportation (US DOT). This work was also supported by the National University Rail Center, a U.S. Department of Transportation Office of the Assistant Secretary for Research and Technology Tier 1 University Transportation Center. The material in this paper represents the position of the authors and not necessarily that of sponsors. The authors also would like to thank Dr. Carmen Sandhaas for supplying literature as well as the base UMAT code used for this paper as well as Matheus Trizotto and Yash Khaitan for their help in collecting and preparing data for this paper. Finally, the authors acknowledge the following project industry partners for supplying insight, recommendations, and materials to this study: Norfolk Southern Corporation; Union Pacific Railroad; BNSF Railway; and Pandrol USA. J. Riley Edwards has been supported in part by the grants to the UIUC Rail Transportation and Engineering Center (RailTEC) from CN and Hanson Professional Services.
PY - 2019/10
Y1 - 2019/10
N2 - Multiple wide-gage derailments have recently been attributed to broken spikes in track constructed with premium elastic fastening systems. Premium fasteners on timber crossties were introduced into heavy axle load (HAL) freight service in North America over the past few decades and have gained popularity given they are thought to reduce maintenance costs, reduce rail-rollover risk, and they do not generally require rail anchors. However, given recent derailments and identification of failed spikes during field testing at higher rates than traditional fasteners, the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign is investigating the stress state of cut spikes in premium fasteners. This paper provides background on the broken spike problem and initial results from a validated finite element model that was developed to quantify the magnitude and location of spike stress concentrations as load magnitude, load direction, and crosstie species are varied. Results from this study indicate that the longitudinal loading, which is not generally present in traditional cut spike fasteners, is more detrimental to the performance of the spike than lateral loading. Further, the depth to the maximum stress concentration increases as the ratio of longitudinal to lateral load increases. Finally, as crosstie species is varied, the magnitude and depth of spike stress changes; these changes are more likely driven by changes in compressive and shear strengths, and then by modulus. Results from this work are presented in an effort to provide information which can be used to mitigate field failures by reducing the spike stresses in an effort to increase the overall safety of HAL freight rail networks and increase the life cycle of premium spike fastening systems.
AB - Multiple wide-gage derailments have recently been attributed to broken spikes in track constructed with premium elastic fastening systems. Premium fasteners on timber crossties were introduced into heavy axle load (HAL) freight service in North America over the past few decades and have gained popularity given they are thought to reduce maintenance costs, reduce rail-rollover risk, and they do not generally require rail anchors. However, given recent derailments and identification of failed spikes during field testing at higher rates than traditional fasteners, the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign is investigating the stress state of cut spikes in premium fasteners. This paper provides background on the broken spike problem and initial results from a validated finite element model that was developed to quantify the magnitude and location of spike stress concentrations as load magnitude, load direction, and crosstie species are varied. Results from this study indicate that the longitudinal loading, which is not generally present in traditional cut spike fasteners, is more detrimental to the performance of the spike than lateral loading. Further, the depth to the maximum stress concentration increases as the ratio of longitudinal to lateral load increases. Finally, as crosstie species is varied, the magnitude and depth of spike stress changes; these changes are more likely driven by changes in compressive and shear strengths, and then by modulus. Results from this work are presented in an effort to provide information which can be used to mitigate field failures by reducing the spike stresses in an effort to increase the overall safety of HAL freight rail networks and increase the life cycle of premium spike fastening systems.
KW - Finite element analysis
KW - Premium rail fastening system
KW - Spike failure analysis
KW - Timber sleepers
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U2 - 10.1016/j.engfailanal.2019.06.009
DO - 10.1016/j.engfailanal.2019.06.009
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85067205961
SN - 1350-6307
VL - 104
SP - 388
EP - 398
JO - Engineering Failure Analysis
JF - Engineering Failure Analysis
ER -